The Far Field

by Theodore Roethke

With Roethke's sudden, tragic death in 1963, a great poetic career was brought to an untimely end. "The Far Field" presents the most rewarding of his many volumes of poetry, both in brilliance of style and inner meaning. All of the poems have appeared previously in periodicals such as "The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Ladies' Home Journal, The New Yorker", and "The Partisan Review". Lightning Print on Demand Title.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1998

About the author

American poet Theodore Roethke published short lyrical works in The Waking (1953) and other collections.

Rhythm and natural imagery characterized volumes of Theodore Huebner Roethke. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking. Roethke wrote of his poetry: The greenhouse "is my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth." From childhood experiences of working in floral company of his family in Saginaw, Roethke drew inspiration. Beginning is 1941 with Open House, the distinguished poet and teacher published extensively; he received two National Book Awards among an array of honors. In 1959, Yale University awarded him the prestigious Bollingen Prize. Roethke taught at Michigan State College, (present-day Michigan State University) and at colleges in Pennsylvania and Vermont before joining the faculty of the University of Washington at Seattle in 1947.

Reviews

[Beau]

This was very enjoyable. Very focused on nature and our relationship to/with it. Some of it could be repetitive but overall a stunning poetry book.

“The Far Field” was my favorite poem.

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Theodore Rothke's poetry in college, and, although I was enchanted by it, I didn't really have the time to sit around, musing about poetry. However, at a recent library book sale, I found a slim paperback of The Far Field and delightedly threw it into my $1 bag of books. I took it home, set it on my messy overflow bookshelf, and kept promising myself that I'd read it (along with the 30+ other books on that shelf.) There it sat, untouched until I decided that this year I was going to observe the "Icelandic tradition" circulating on the internet where people read books and eat chocolate on Christmas Eve night. I told my sister about it and which book I intended to read (THIS ONE!), and she even wrapped it up for me so I could "open" it and then enjoy it with the dark chocolate I purchased for myself.

10/10 highly recommend staying up on Christmas Eve & reading while eating chocolate. It's as amazing as it sounds. And it definitely helped that I had such wonderful writing for my company. I fell in love with Rothke's nature descriptions when I first discovered his poetry, and those are still some of my favorite parts. But in my (not at all professional) opinion, he's a fairly flawless poet. JUST LOOK at these beautiful lines:

"Being, not doing, is my first joy."

Or these:

"My wrath, where's the edge
Of the fine shapely thought
That I carried so long
When so young, when so young?"

OR THIS ONE:

"What does what it should do needs nothing more."

Two small content advisories if you're thinking about reading this book: Please remember that this is poetry. It's sensuous. There's one poem that is super obviously referring to sex, although he doesn't describe it in any detail. AND there are several poems where he's talking about being reincarnated, so if that weirds you out this might not be for you. Neither of these things diminished my enjoyment of this book in the least, and I'm hanging on to my paperback so I can read my favorites again and again.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many beautiful poems in this collection. One of my long-time favorites “The Rose” with its first lines,


“There are those to whom place is unimportant,
But this place, where sea and fresh water meet,
Is important –
Where the hawks sway out into the wind,
Without a single wingbeat...”


Each poem feels to me like a journey through a moment of observation of nature, and a longing to be freed into its beauty and rhythms and scope. An overwhelming desire to be free of himself and yet still be himself – something so many of us relate to.


“In the long journey out of the self,
There are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
Where the shale slides dangerously
And the back wheels hang almost over the edge
At the sudden veering, the moment of turning...”
“Journey to the Interior”

“I stand by a low fire
Counting the wisps of flame, and I watch how
Light shifts upon the wall.
I bid stillness be still.
I see, in evening air,
How slowly dark comes down on what we do.”
“In Evening Air”

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sighs, sighs, who says they have sequence?
Between the spirit and the flesh,--what war?
She never knew;
For she asked no quarter and gave none,
Who sat with the dead when the relatives left,
Who fed and tended the infirm, the mad, the epileptic,
And, with a harsh rasp of a laugh at herself,
Faced up to the worst.

I recall how she harried the children away all the late summer
From the one beautiful thing in her yard, the peachtree;
How she kept the wizened, the fallen, the misshapen for herself,
And picked and pickled the best, to be left on rickety doorsteps.

And yet she died in agony,
Her tongue, at the last, thick, black as an ox's.

from "Elegy"

Theodore Roethke's posthumous collection The Far Field: Last Poems is a mixed-bag of provocative, powerful poetry alongside weaker poems which, given time and circumstance, may have been transformed from burgeoning concept to immortal verse had Death not been an active editor in the publication process. I especially enjoyed the "North American Sequence." I found the later two sections--"Mixed Sequence" and "Sequence, Sometimes Metaphysical"--reiterating the imagery and ideas within this opening sequence; as if, rather than finished poems, we are scrutinizing rough sketches and developing ideas.

Worth a reading--enough to interest me in seeking poetry he wrote when in the prime of his life and talents.

I would with the fish, the blackening salmon, and the mad lemmings,
The children dancing, the flowers widening.
Who sighs from far away?
I would unlearn the lingo of exasperation, all the distortions of malice and hatred;
I would believe my pain; and the eye quiet on the growing rose;
I would delight in my hands, the branch singing, altering the excessive bird;
I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart of form;
I would be a stream, winding between great striated rocks in late summer;
A leaf, I would love the leaves, delighting in the redolent disorder of this mortal life,
This ambush, this silence,
Where shadow can change into flame,
And the dark be forgotten.

from "The Longing"

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roethke’s last book, with the exception of several uncollected poems. Mostly longer poems here, with some short lyrics mixed in to somewhat leaven the reading pace. These poems strike me as more like meditations. I don’t have a particular favorite among them, perhaps just The Meadow Mouse, but like his earlier poems and shorter ones, he is highly readable and understandable. A good poet to read in order to get glimpses of both craft and ideas.

[kennedy clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s greater, Pebble or Pond?
What can be known? The Unknown.
My true self runs toward a Hill
More! O More! visible.

Now I adore my life
With the Bird, the abiding Leaf,
With the Fish, the questing Snail,
And the Eye altering all;
And I dance with William Blake
For love, for Love’s sake;

And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on.

— Once More, The Round

[Hannah Contreras · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could anyone have ever forgotten this man? I first discovered him in a poetry anthology on the Internet Archive (Essential Pleasures). Then, I found a used copy of this collection in my local bookstore and bought it on a whim. I am so glad I did. What a powerful American voice in poetry. His works are entirely, deeply rooted in an appreciation for the natural and a profound wonder and curiosity for (but never fear of) death. The “North American Sequence” is an almost inhumanly tight and thought-provoking series of poems. A perfect introduction to such a wonderful American poet. He holds such a deep love of nature, and his connection to nature is admirable. Wow. Just wow. So many thoughts.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does not the apatite alter? I loathed Roethke's poems when I encountered them in my undergraduate reader. More than 40 years later I finally gave him a fair reading and am very impressed. These poems have a sensitivity for nature, thought, and feeling that simply sings to me until I get to the metaphysical lyrics that finish the book. As usual, most of these seem like metaphysical mumbo-jumbo except for "The Right Thing," which really gets that our world, and maybe the body /soul separation, are just different labels for part of the same thing. "The hill becomes the valley, and is still." Yes. Exactly. Lovely.

[j · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mortality as a funhouse -- everywhere surrounding, death and death, but we see nothing but ourselves, stretched to eternity. These poems occupy a particular sweet spot for me between the abstract and the concrete. Their imagery is rich and vibrant, but Roethke twists pastoral scenes and love poems into elusive inward dives, cosmic tumults, bittersweet last breaths. His sense of lyricism, the cadence of the words, the musicality of sounds, is spellbinding.

Very absolute favorites: The Longing, Meditation at Oyster River, The Tranced

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A man goes far to find out what he is -
Death of the self is a long tearless night
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, darker my light, and darker my desire
My soul like some heat-maddened summer fly
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?”

“In a Dark Time”

I’m just an existential mess reading poetry written by another existential mess.

[Jiapei Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

All finite things reveal infinitude:
…
The pure serene of memory in one man, —
A ripple widening from a single stone
Winding around the waters of the world.
///
How is it, that a few lines of poetry, could ease my anxiety of death? I stan Roethke.

[Kendalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I only just discovered one of the finest American poets this year? What took you so long, Roethke, to invade my brain and my heart?

"All finite things reveal infinitude"

"Being, not doing, is my first joy"

[Caterina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A dark theme keeps me here, / Though summer blazes in the vireo’s eye.”

I’m grateful to In Evening Air by Future Islands for leading me here, to a masterful collection that resonates in much the same way as the album - imperfect, searching, but deeply, devastatingly human.

[Michael A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[Derek Jacoby · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning of reading this book I really had a dislike for Roethke's poetry. But goodness gracious that changed. This is masterful and has my whole heart. This is poetry that will grow with me.

[emilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

some gems, some cardboard

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best section was the beginning "North American Sequence" especially the poem titled "The Rose". Roethke has a good command of sound and the elegance of words, but somehow the poems seem distant and false, like he didn't think at all or thought far too much about what he wanted to say. I didn't like the section "Love Poems" which I thought were the weakest ones in the book by far. They tended to rhyme without reason and have meters that made them feel trivial, without the technical display of writing a sonnet, villanelle, rondeau, or sestina. The best poems were very good, and "Mixed Sequence" had some really insightful pieces, but overall the book didn't speak to me either in content (as a consumer) or form (as a poet). Good but not great, not really recommended for people with similar poetic tastes to mine. If you like Roethke, it's a good book, but otherwise, you might want to try reading an individual poem or two first.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently reread (again) this fine collection of poetry and the complete 1948 The Lost Son & Other Poems. Simply amazing and beautiful poetry by one of my favorite poets. Roethke will be just someone I read over and over again--it has something to do with his attention to things, whether it be memory or weeds. I'm going to go so far this morning as say that the 5-sectioned "The Lost Son" is, for me, one of the truly enduring, great poems of the first half of the twentieth century. This time, my reading of his poems reminded me first and foremost what a great ear Roethke possessed, as well as an ability to take even the most serious subjects with a pill of delight and playfulness.

[J. Alfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection, which was published posthumously, doesn't have any of Roethke's famous or especially haunting poems, but is still very readable. The last section reads like a more cheerful, more agnostic version of the Four Quartets. The last poem ("Once More, The Round") ends "And I dance with William Blake/ For love, for Love's sake;/ And everything comes to One/ As we dance on, dance on, dance on." If one is going to write this sort of poem, this is the best possible last word for one's poetic career.

[Jonathan Koven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soulful, lyrical poems by the incredible Roethke. An interesting quality about his work is that some of it rhymes, some half-rhymes, and every individual word matters. A deep wisdom and yearning to his voice, this is apparently the last group of poems he wrote before his death. Separated in chapters: a "North American" sequence, a love poem section, a metaphysical section, and a mixed section. Honestly reminded a lot of my own writing while reading Roethke; maybe he's an influence and I didn't realize it.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection. Forget about the uber-anthologized "My Papa's Waltz." This is Roethke as he should be read. Grounded in a nature-based philosophy without getting too light and airy.

Compare it to Leaves of Grass. It's probably not quite as good, but it definitely stands above Pulitzer-winner American Primitive by Mary Oliver, which makes the mistake of exalting nature at the expense of saying much of anything about humanity.

This collection has plenty to say.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only Roethke that I've read. I am more familiar with his students. I found it pleasant, often engaging. Nothing wrested my soul with astonishment. However, I thought that the last section was vastly superior to the rest of the book. I know little about Roethke, but in this section he gives the impression that he knows he is dying and these poems are more poignant. Certainly worth a read, especially since most view this book much more favorably than I.

[Sebastien · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many wonderful poems in this collection, but I especially loved his poems in the North American Sequence. Very deep and mystical, a search for identity and the connection between self and nature...

I also really like how birds play a role in so many of his poems; especially enjoyed his little ode to the birds in his yard in the poem All Morning!

Good stuff.

[Victoria Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Roethke is brilliant, but his poems are not to my usual taste. I felt separated from them, and it was hard for me to relate and feel what Roethke wanted me to feel. I still appreciate what he does, though, and enjoyed a few of the poems.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though Roethke isn't my favorite poet, this collection is outstanding.

[Terri]

I read this in college. Like Ted Hughes' The Hawk in the Rain, I don't remember it well.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book of poetry to start the year with. I enjoyed reading afew poems each day. First of this author I have read and will be looking for more of his works.